In the Ladybirds Room the children do loads of mark making, often wrongly described as doodling and scribbling. In actual fact, this is the child’s first step towards writing. As well as enabling a child to learn how to write, mark-making can benefit a child physically and also help to develop their imagination and creative skills. In this room, we encourage sand and water play, to help promote physical development in young children. A child’s muscle skills develop as they squeeze, dig, pour, scoop and clean up. Hand-eye coordination and muscle control improve as children learn to manipulate sand accessories, as well as improving social skills whilst playing with other children.

Children in this room also engage in sensory play, which encourage processes within a child’s brain. It teaches them to solve problems using the senses; their eyes (sight), ears (sound), nose (smell), mouth (taste) and hands (touch). This they are able to achieve with a range of treasure baskets full of different textures and scents, plus some sensory bottles that create different interesting sounds.

Children are able to create and act out their own narratives and expressions using the small world. This allows them to gain communication and language skills and can also encourage friendships by playing in small groups. In the covered area of the garden next to the room is our construction area, where children can use their imagination to create their own buildings.

We have lots of resources in our maths area to help children develop fine motor and numeracy skills. We have threading activities, jigsaws, shapes and sorters for children to use in order to begin to learn and recognise their numbers.

Our creative Area is fully equipped with lots of resources for the children to choose independently. These include paint, junk modelling, paper and crayons so the children can draw some fantastic pictures from their own imagination for our displays or to send home. We have a cosy carpet area where the children can sit and relax or look at a book. The carpet area is also used for structured carpet time twice a day. In the afternoon this area is closed off so our toddlers can have a little nap.

Our real-life area allows children to share their real-life experiences such as making dinner or putting the babies to bed. They can recreate actions they have witnessed at home with their family. The dress up rail enables children to share experiences of different job roles such as people who help us and our community. The malleable area promotes fine motor skills and strengthens little fingers. This area is available to children all day and the children can access this area freely.

In our sing along area, children can create different sounds through musical instruments or they can sit and relax with one of our sensory baskets full of different textures and scents.